Clare Townhill

The Rise of The Bionic Dictator

Here's an edit of the show I've been working on since April - The Rise of The Bionic Dictator. Since this was shot we've had our very own tale of scandal and corruption: evicted from the venue we've been in for 14 years, losing all our set, decor and costumes, and then having two whole days to recreate a show it took us four months to produce. All in all, a bit of a nightmare. None the less, despite all of this, the show looks and feels great in Amnesia. Miracles Happen. HD camera guys coming in to night. Expect edit two soon.

100 Websites

Futurelab blog feature today:

During TED University at this spring's TED2007 in Monterey, Julius Wiedemann, editor in charge at Taschen GmbH, offered an ultra-fast-moving ride through sites in many different areas, from art, design and illustration, to daily news, blogs and curiosity.

This is the list:

CURIOSITY & KNOWLEDGE
reuters.com
research.philips.com
readme.cc.png
podtropolis.com
papertoys.com
new7wonders.com
lipsum.com
thomasedison.org
beelinetv.com
useit.com
submarinechannel.com/titlesequences
visual-literacy.org
cartype.com
captology.stanford.edu
bannerblog.com_au
ge.com
curiosityshoppeonline.com
creativecommons.org
lawsofsimplicity.com
gnu.org
digg.com

GRAPHICS, MUSIC & ARTS
yugop.com
vincent-vella.com
uva.co.uk
tutorialblog.org/free-vector-downloads
tate.org.uk
squidfingers.com/patterns
sohodolls.co.uk
radioblogclub.com
photogravure.com
netdiver.net/illustration
mine-control.com
matthewmahon.com
marcelod2.com.br
magwerk.com
kraftwerk.blocmedia.net
headbangers.tv *
grupow.com/circulo
creaturesinmyhead.com
bernhardwolff.com
arturofuentes.com
alennox.net

E-COMMERCE EXPERIENCE
colette.fr
imaginemusicstore.com
canyon.com
coft1.com
heftyrecords.com
ourtype.be
freddyandma.com
nikeid.nike.com
feelthepower.biz
shopcomposition.com
oneill.com
agentprovocateur.com

SEARCHING & FINDING
trendwatching.com
thefwa.com
springwise.com
scirus.com
scholar.google.com
podcasts.yahoo.com
msdewey.com
maps.live.com
chacha.com
books.google.com

ONLINE RESOURCES
infopresse.com/prixboomerang
rjnet.com.br/2velocimetro_php
vixy.net
kuler.adobe.com
wikitravel.org
thinkingwithtype.com
dominiopublico.gov.br
madehow.com
icp.org
howstuffworks.com
dafont.com
dictionary.reference.com
gutenberg.org
nationmaster.com
en.proverbia.net
del.icio.us
touchgraph.com

TOP INTERACTIVE EXPERIENCE CREATORS
2advanced.com
akqa.com
almapbbdo.com.br
artless.gr.jp
bigspaceship.com
d-o-e-s.com
domanistudios.com
eurorscg4d.com
farfar.se
firstbornmultimedia.com
group94.com
heiwa-alpha.co.jp
hi-res.net
lowetesch.com
mecano.ca
northkingdom.com
rga.com
soleilnoir.com
wefail.com

Mouse On The Rocks

POCATELLO, Idaho (AP) -- Fred Risinger never gives his eastern Idaho bar patrons a last call - but then his customers are mice. Some are teetotalers who eschew the mouse-sized shots of alcohol they can obtain at any time simply by pressing a lever in their cage. Others Risinger describes as "your wine with dinner mice." And some are raging alcoholics, downing, in human terms, several fifths of liquor each day.

Risinger, an Idaho State University professor, said what makes the alcohol cravings in the individual mice different is the same thing that makes the alcohol cravings in humans different: genetics.

Wired: Scientist Searches for Anti-Alcohol Drug

Stuck Holding The Virtual Leash

I really enjoyed this article about virtual pets and the growing popularity of Webkinz. In May the site had 3.71 million unique users. Unlike some other virtual pets, Webkinz's critters don't die if you neglect them, they just get ill. Webkinz also lets parents access their offspring's pet to help with the care - as in real life, many parents end up with the burden of care. Here's a taster of the article:

"Who's really going to walk the dog?" is a question that parents have long used to avoid buying their children pets. Virtual pets seemed like a good compromise. Yet some parents still end up stuck holding the leash, helping keep their kids' animals well-fed, happy and breathing.

"You got to wonder when you're seeing a lot of site activity at 11 o'clock at night," says Susan McVeigh, communications manager with Ganz, the manufacturer of Webkinz.

Some parents voluntarily pet-sit because they find the activities fun. "I like the bubble blowing game," says Jessica Spizzirri, a stay-at-home mother in St. Charles, Ill., who says she enjoys walking and bathing her daughter's virtual dogs on Nintendo's Nintendogs videogame.

WSJ: As Virtual Pets Soar In Popularity, Parents Get Left Feeding the 'Puffle'

What's He Building In There?

The neighbour that we all become...

Perspectives on World of Warcraft

Just back from a bit of a wander from all the sites and blogs I visit when I feel a bit starved of digital culture. Here are three interesting (well I think they are) perspectives on the virtual world WoW and the motivations of those who 'play':

The Pleasure of the Completed Quest

What distinguishes Warcraft from previous blockbuster games is its immersive nature and compelling social dynamics. It's a rich, persistent alternative world, a medieval Matrix with lush graphics and even a seductive soundtrack (Blizzard has two full-time in-house composers). Blizzard improved on previous MMOs like Sony's Everquest by cleverly crafting its game so that newbies could build up characters at their own pace, shielded from predators who would casually "gank" them—while experienced players continually face more and more daunting challenges. The company mantra, says lead designer Rob Pardo, is "easy to learn, difficult to master." After months of play, when you reach the ultimate level (60), you join with other players for intricately planned raids on dungeons, or engage in massive rumbles against other guilds.

"Ninety percent of what I do is never finished—parenting, teaching, doing the laundry," says Elizabeth Lawley (Level 60, Troll Priest), a Rochester, N.Y., college professor. "In WOW, I can cross things off a list—I've finished a quest, I've reached a new level."

Newsweek: Living a Virtual Life

Fulltime Gold-Diggers

It was an hour before midnight, three hours into the night shift with nine more to go. At his workstation in a small, fluorescent-lighted office space in Nanjing, China, Li Qiwen sat shirtless and chain-smoking, gazing purposefully at the online computer game in front of him. The screen showed a lightly wooded mountain terrain, studded with castle ruins and grazing deer, in which warrior monks milled about. Li, or rather his staff-wielding wizard character, had been slaying the enemy monks since 8 p.m., mouse-clicking on one corpse after another, each time gathering a few dozen virtual coins — and maybe a magic weapon or two — into an increasingly laden backpack.

NYT: The Life of a Goldfarmer

WoW: A Place for Addicts

World of Warcraft now has 9 million paid up users. With this growing subscriber base comes the proliferation of sinister stories of addiction and broken homes:

Apadme.com: Tales of WoW woe

Australian Courier:Computer Games Ate My Life

Plundered sites and blogs:

Technology News: New York Times

Alistair Beattie's Blog

Lynette Webb: Interesting Snippets

Dude, I Invented The Friggin iPhone

It's a sad day. Well a sad day for those of us who've been enjoying the diary of FSJ (Fake Steve Jobs). This incredibly well-observed piece of satire and the caricature of Fake Steve Jobs has been well populated for about a year, much to the simultaneous amusement and chagrin no doubt of the subjects and companies in question. The writer, Daniel Lyons, an editor at Forbes has finally been outed by a Bruce Stone, a journalist at the NYT. Here are links to the two best articles on the outing and Lyons' motivations for starting in the first place. I particularly like the real Steve Jobs' iciness in the NYT article:

NYT - 'Fake' Steve Jobs Comes Clean
Times Online: Mystery Steve Jobs blogger outed